Experts warn there is little evidence to support widespread prescribing of mood-altering drugs to children for mental health problems.
In the medical journal Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin they write that ‘psychotropic drugs’ have become the ‘mainstay of treatment’. Doctors are prescribing them more and more often and for longer periods of time to young patients.
However, they argue that prescribing these drugs, which include tranquilizers, anti-anxiolytics, antidepressants, antipsychotics and melatonin, should be made much safer.
The editorial, written by David Branford, a professor at the University of Plymouth, along with an adviser to NHS England and an independent pharmaceutical adviser, suggests the drugs are being overused without proper oversight.
They cite previously published British studies showing that the prescription rate of antipsychotics to children increased by more than 3 percent annually between 2000 and 2019, while the prescription rate of antidepressants among 12- to 17-year-olds more than doubled between 2005 and 2017.
Writing in the medical journal Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, they say that “psychotropic drugs” have become the “mainstay of treatment,” with doctors increasingly prescribing them to younger patients and continuing to use them for longer (stock image)
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Another study found that more than 56,000 young people under the age of 17 used melatonin in 2022, a 168 percent increase from the corresponding figures in 2015.
Experts stress that little research has been done into the safety of using psychotropic drugs in children.
However, they stress that there are concerns about the safety of prescribing antipsychotics to foster children in particular, prompting the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to issue guidelines for clinicians advocating a “start low and go slow” approach.
The authors say the drugs should be reviewed regularly and discontinued as soon as possible. However, the evidence shows that primary care physicians do not feel confident enough to reduce dosage and frequency, while hospital physicians feel that hospital stays are not long enough to start doing so, they add.
“If prescribing psychotropic drugs is to become an established part of the treatment of childhood mental health problems, and there is limited evidence to support this use, then it should be safer,” the experts write.
‘There is a need for a better understanding of the level of risk of psychotropic drugs, what doses are considered safe in different age groups and at what point physical health monitoring should become mandatory.’
They conclude: ‘Better shared supervision and shared decision-making, involving young people and their families in discussions about medication in both primary and secondary care, to ensure treatments are not continued when they are no longer needed, are vital.’